Quaaludes became increasingly popular as a recreational drug during the 1960s, and during the disco club scene in the 1970s. The drug was more tightly regulated in Britain under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and in the U.S. from 1973. With its addictive nature clear, it was withdrawn from many developed markets in the 1980s, being made a Schedule I drug in the US in 1984.

Smoking methaqualone, either alone or as an adulterant added to various legal and illegal smoking mixtures, gained popularity in the United States during the mid 1970s. When smoked, methaqualone gives the user an immediate trance-like euphoria that quickly wears off. Because the various binders and inert ingredients that were contained in the pill form were toxic when smoked, this practice was roundly decried by the medical community as a serious health risk. Smoking methaqualone pills leads to emphysema and other chronic lung disorders.

Commonly known as Mandrax, it is not taken orally but is crushed and mixed in a pipe (or the neck of a broken bottle) with marijuana. Mandrax has become a major problem and is one of the most commonly abused hard drugs in South Africa. The low price of methaqualone together with the ready availability of cheap, low-grade marijuana means it (in addition to crystal meth) is the preferred hard drug of the low-income section of South African society.

Since methaqualone is no longer legally produced, illicit manufacture either in India, or in South Africa itself or other African countries produces methaqualone for the South African market.[1]